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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Help! The tourist are coming!

Locals often grumble
about tourist, but Berlin saw an actual protest, by Stephen Evans, Berlin correspondent for the BBC, lives in
Prenzlauer Berg, a yppifiying part of the old East Berlin.

In a disused theme park in Halensee, locals met and moaned. ‘If
tourism is Berlin’s biggest growth industry,’ pouted their literature, ‘where
will those who provide the fun for the guests relax?’

Community meetings in Kreuzberg-a working class area to the
west with a large Turkish population, favoured by visitors on weekend
breaks-flew banners readin, “Help! The
tourist are coming!” One alternative magazine urged its readers to ‘steal their
mobile phones and wallets as you walk by their café tables, burn their cars,
smash their hotel windows, drop rubbish, throw stuff at tourist buses’.

The grievances are varied: tourists
rattle their wheelie cases over the cobblestones early in the morning, and
change the nature of clubs by taking pictures on mobile phones.

The resentment springs from an enduring counter-culture. During
the Cold War, West Berlin attracted
dissidents because the government exempted citizens from military service. It duly
became a pressure cooker of politics. The fall of the Wall meant two very
different cultures-and sets of incomes-were thrown together. In the old East,
there is resentment as yuppies move in.

And there’s likely to be more to moan about. Berlin
had over nine million visitors in 2010, a 10 percent increase on the previous
year. But the city needs them. The destruction and division of Berlin left it with virtually no
industry. Companies like Siemens relocated to Bavaria. Berlin needs
the money-your money.

COPENHAGEN ‘Tourists
show up at The little Mermaid statue and are disappointed at how small it is. Given
that she’s called The Little Mermaid, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise.’
Timothy Anderson, thecopenhagenreport.blogspot.com

MUMBAI ‘Calling the
Gateway of India “India Gate”, which is a different monument, in Delhi. Mumbai already
resents Delhi because it gets more government funding .to take our iconic
monument and call it by a Delhi name, sacrilege!’ Deepa Krshnan, mumbaimagic.com